NY 106 BOS 104
The New York Knicks did anything they wanted in the first half, holding a lead which peaked as high as 17. The second half was a different story. The Celtics retook the lead in the third quarter for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. Boston led by as much as 10 in the second half, but New York rallied back in the fourth. Two free throws by Carmelo Anthony with 16 seconds left in the game sealed it for the Knicks as Boston failed to score on two straight possessions.

Rajon Rondo was indisputably the best player for Boston, scoring 31 points - one point shy of his career high - and dishing out 13 assists. Brandon Bass' Celtics debut had to impress Boston fans, as he scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett scored 20 and 15 respectively. Paul Pierce sat out the game with a heel injury.

For the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony led all scorers with 37 points and added 8 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire added 21 points and Toney Douglas had 19. New acquistion Tyson Chandler had 7 points and 6 blocked shots.

Regardless of the result, this was a very good game. Rondo was amazing, Bass was very good, Allen and KG were good in th second half, and we could have won this game, even with Pierce out. Any Celtics fan should be happy about this game regardless of the results because of the situation. Go Celtics!

Great game by the celtics impressed by bass and rondo, knicks wont be any better this season cant even beat the celtics by more than a basket. with pierce and pietrus i see great things happening with the celts

Watching Celtics' and Mavs' first half performances, I think the problem is that veterans are bored and can't motivate themselves until it gets real. It was Garnett and Allen who looked out of the place for us in the first half, and in Dallas, Nowitzki and Kidd look like they are being forced to play.

even though the celtics lost, i left the game with a positive feeling. much more positive than i felt before the game. rondo was insane, bass was a beast on the boards and made great shots, and besides the 2nd unit not having any rhythm at all the team overall played well. could have won the game without the captain, but mistakes down the stretch and foul trouble gave it away. with pierce back and pietrus there to score on the 2nd unit, i think the c's will be in good shape. looking forward to the season.

There were a lot of positives from this game. Our bench was good, Rondo was amazing, and this is all without Pierce to defend Melo and hit the game winning shot. And we didn't have Nate to jump over him and land on his head. I thought Marquis and Bass were great. Let's focus on the next one and beat the heat!

Stern decided that we're done ruling the Atlantic, so he gave us a tough start. You know what? Doesn't look that bad to me. Bring the Heat, 1-1 or 0-2. Bear in mind we never lost more than 2 in a row last year :D.

Rondo was amazing and the work he did on his shooting was obvious. Lack of Pierce and Pietrus was a huge difference - painful to watch Daniels try to defend Carmelo. Plus Carmelo apparently is no longer a cancer.

The league thinks there are fans paying to see Joey Crawford. They should be selling a Joey replica ref shirt in the NBA store. Pavlovic has been useless since 2007. Rondo was great but he was playing against the Knicks backcourt with only one frontline guy(Chandler) interested in defending the rim. The Knicks will not be a contender until they get a point guard.

Knicks were only smart in smothering Ray Allen cause aside from him and Pierce, no one else can shoot the 3 with confidence, when Mickael Pietrus comes in, that's gonna change BIG TIME, NY be enjoy this win cause they ain't getting another one

A lot of positives taken from this game. Rondo pushed the ball, Bass performed better than I expected and we lost by only two points without our main scorer....Only negative is I had to take sh*t from my friend all day. #ohwell. And btw ThomasJ or whatever ur name is, u got problems, why would you be rude to JR when he was only trying to mention that you had an interesting thought?!